At last, we have a real leader - pity that it's not Rudd

By Peter Hartcher

The Labor Party has found a leader's voice on boat people and immigration - but it's not the Prime Minister's.

The task has fallen to a most unlikely candidate, a 28-year-old right-wing union leader who grew up poor in the Blue Mountains.

Union leader Paul Howes

It's the voice of the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, the very outfit that led the creation of White Australia a century ago.

While Kevin Rudd continued to duck and weave yesterday to avoid antagonising anti-immigrant sentiment in the outer suburbs, Paul Howes confronted it.

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Howes is saying plainly what Rudd has not dared. He was in Canberra yesterday speaking in favour of humanity and strongly setting out Labor's policy in favour of immigration.

''The immaturity in political debate in Australia sometimes makes me sick,'' Howes said. ''There are politicians in both the Liberal and Labor parties who are exploiting the issue of race to whip up fear in the community.

''Question time is dominated by 78 people on a boat. We have around 50,000 visa overstayers every year,'' he said of people who arrive by plane rather than boat. ''Is anyone saying this is a national crisis? One reason there is no outrage is that these people are mainly white and speak English. Is anyone demanding we clean out the backpackers' hostels of Bondi and Surry Hills?''

He also set out the basic fact that underlies the quiet consensus of Australian politics, the reason the Howard and Rudd governments support an immigration intake of about 140,000 to 170,000 a year: ''We are a nation of immigrants. The history of Australia since World War II has been successive waves of immigration.

''All were opposed by substantial sections of the population. They were wrong every time.''

Howes doesn't want to be the leading Labor voice on the issue. He was in Canberra to talk about manufacturing. He risks the disfavour of much of his own membership by supporting refugees and immigrants. He would much rather Rudd led: ''Rudd has an approval rating of 68 per cent [71 per cent in the Nielsen poll]. He has the unanimous loyalty of his caucus. He has an almost non-existent Opposition.

''He is in a unique position to change the debate. Changing the way Australia deals with race would be pretty special - that's Labor hero stuff.''

But Rudd offers little more than his formulaic ''tough but humane'' soundbite while savaging the Opposition.

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Interestingly, Rudd has been making the case for a much bigger population: ''I actually believe in a big Australia,'' he said. This week he announced a bigger federal hand in planning the growth of cities. It's just that he won't connect this with immigration.

Howes can barely conceal his disgust: ''Some things have to be above polling.''